NATIONAL HEALTH CENTER WEEK – LEGISLATIVE VISIT
THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2023
Moses Lake, WA, August 10, 2023, MLCHC kicked off this National Health Center Week (NHCW) with social media reminders of what our CHCs do for the Grant County community and how important Community Health Centers are to our state.
Here to celebrate NHCW with us, we received a very special visit from our local legislatures. Senator Judy Warnick, Representative Tom Dent, and Representative Alex Ybarra joined MLCHC’s Sheila Berschauer, CEO; Amanda Barta, CFO; and LaDell Yada, Board member for a tour of our Moses Lake facility and to discuss the impact of Community Health Centers in our state.
Over the course of an hour, we discussed the impact our clinics have in Grant County, showing that we serve nearly 30% of its 100,297 residents.
• Patients seen in Moses Lake - 14,300
• Patients seen in Quincy over 7,000
• Patients seen in Ephrata 3,000
With 445 delivery sites and 59 school-based clinics in Washington state, we are very fortunate to have access across the state giving Washingtonians healthcare where they need it.
Sheila shared with the group the successful integration of the school-based clinic into Quincy High School (Quincy Student Health and Wellness Center), now in its third year of operations. This school-based clinic had many obstacles to overcome to be the success it is today. The hope is for other communities in the area to see the need and the success to consider adopting this model in their local schools.
In Washington state, there are 11,000 healthcare jobs that take care of 1.2 million patients. Of those 3,300 positions are medical staff, 1,400 dental staff, and 730 are behavioral health staff. In our small corner of Central Washington MLCHC staff 86 of those medical staff, 46 of dental, and 5 of the behavioral health staff. Community Health Centers also have half of all medical residents in Washington state!
The main topic Senator Warnick and Representatives Dent, and Ybarra were here to learn about was the impact of changes to the 340B Program. The 340B prescription drug program is a vital lifeline for safety-net providers, supporting critical health services in our communities. The program is narrowly tailored to reach organizations that provide a high level of services to low-income individuals or that serve isolated rural communities. Savings from the 340B program help Moses Lake Community Health meet the healthcare needs of the underserved and provide lower-cost prescriptions to patients throughout Grant County.
340B Program Revenue Funds:
• Integrated Behavioral Health Services
• Case management for our community’s most medically complex patients
• Support for patient’s social determinants of health
• Integrated Dental and Oral Health Services
• Medication management support for patients
# # #
Without amazing staff who build trusted relationships with patients and move mountains to innovatively serve our communities, Moses Lake Community Health Centers could not care for 30 thousand patients county-wide.
# # #
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Stephanie Melcher at 509-764-6110 or email at smelcher@mlchc.org.